The Toes **Graphic Pictures**

By popular demand, here is the story and pictures of the toes. They were actually not injured as I hiked downhill (which is very common for toe injuries) but as I hiked uphill. The toenails rocked up and down, sort of grabbed by the sock, I suppose, and by the top, one hurt a lot, and one hurt a little. After I got out of the shower (shower after a 25 mile hike = best shower ever), I realized that the ones that hurt were not the same color as the others.

They looked bad, then they looked worse, and now they look lots better. They are still sort of black/purple, but don't hurt very much. The nails are very loose, making me think that they're going to fall off at some point. If that does happen, I'll be sure to post follow-up pictures.

Looking at these pictures now, I really don't think that they looked that bad. One person asked to see them and then gagged, but mostly people just thought they were gross and averted their eyes. However, no matter how bad or not bad they looked, they hurt SO MUCH. It was painful to walk, even painful to sleep. I had to get creative and prop my feet up in strange ways to keep the pain down.

I now know why they pull out fingernails as torture. It was, perhaps, one of the most physically painful things I've ever experienced.

This is your last warning...here come the pictures...

*

*

*

*

*

*
This picture is just two days after it happened. You can see that the big toenail is starting to puff up on the right foot. The other injured toenail is the second toe on the left foot. I have no idea why just those two toes were injured, but that's how it happened. The world may never know...

This is the same day, a close shot of the second toe. The white around the base of the toe is the stretched cuticle.


Two or three days later...big toe getting puffier...


Closeup of the puffy big toe. The base of the toenail poked up in the skin--you could actually see that the entire nail was raised up out of the bed. In this picture, it's just under my thumb.


The next day...


Side angle to compare the two big toenails...pretty strange stuff.


As the swelling went down, the purple/black color just increased. The swelling is completely down on the little toe in this picture, and you can see how black it is. It's not black anymore, as it has separated from the nail bed completely. I was going to take some pictures of that today, but couldn't find my camera.


In this picture, you can see how dark the little nail is. Also, you can see a little bit of bruising in the second toenail on the right foot. That showed up a few days after I got home.


Incidentally, you can see a bit of nail polish on the big toenails in most of these pictures. I hadn't bothered to remove the nail polish from those nails because it is actually just a nude polish, so it usually doesn't show, and you can't usually tell that I haven't kept them painted nicely. However, when a toe turns purple, you start to wish that you didn't have that nail polish on.

So, there's the story and the pictures. Hope it wasn't too much of a letdown after all the talk!